Sponsored Sew for Cancer Research UK *UPDATED*

*UPDATED (June 24, 2013)

Thank you everybody who sponsored me or bid on the two lovely dolls. In total, I raised £300.77 + £53.81 in gift aid. That is a total of £354.58 for Cancer Research UK. This has been a wonderful experience and a very rewarding one. I couldn't have ever imagined raising this amount of money, so thank you all again. 

Unexpectedly, the two dolls were won by a friend of mine, one for each of her daughters, and in memory of her Father. A well deserved new home for these two pretty girls. 

What's Next?

I am currently working on adding some variety to the shop, so watch out for baby bibs, baby/toddler/children's dresses, toddler/boys shirts, and shoes. And perhaps a new bag or two. 

*UPDATED (June 13, 2013) - You can now bid for these two gorgeous girls right HERE

Small Article in the Norwich Evening News - June 17, 2013

* * *

I have been terribly excited about the sponsored sew and having reached above my goal in sponsorship I was more motivated than ever. A big thank you to everybody who has sponsored me and supported me through this project.

Me with the dolls made in the Sponsored Sew

Donations to date (June 10, 2013)

The Donators

I know I have posted about our donators before but without them this sponsored sew would have been a lot more difficult to get together. So firstly a great bit thank you to the donators:

The Wool Felt Company - Baby pink wool blend felt
An online shop specialising in craft fabrics.
 
Suzie May Ltd - Fabric for the skin, ribbon for the hair and shoes, and satin and organza for the skirts
One of  UK's favourite Haberdashery supplier
 
Groves-Banks - Two bags of toy stuffing
UK’s leading independent distributor of haberdashery, sewing accessories and needlecrafts to the retail trade. 

Binky Roo Designs (me) - Pink Ribbon / Cancer Fabric, lace trim and flower buttons for the body of the doll and hair accessories.
Specialises in beautiful handcrafted dolls, bags, accessories and much more

The dolls were made from slightly adapted  Dolls and Daydreams Patterns. Sarah from Dolls and Daydreams designs the most beautiful dolls and plushes and is very supportive of those who use them.

The Sponsored Sew

The Sponsored Sew took place on Saturday, June 08, 2013. Rather than bore you with the step by step details I thought photos would be much more interesting.

Everything ready for the Sponsored Sew

Sewing the hair onto Dolly Irene

Making the Bow for Dolly June Rose's hair

Sewing the legs for Dolly Irene

My son peeping over the table to see what his Mummy is doing

Faces for Dolly Irene and Dolly June Rose are ready

More Sewing at the Machine

More machine sewing

Stuffing the legs

The two dolls are ready to be put together

Stuffing Dolly Irene

More stuffing of Dolly Irene

Vincent cheering his Mummy on

The finished Dolls!

The Charity Auction

The two dolls, named Irene and June Rose, will be up for auction on Ebay from Thursday, June 13. To keep informed of when the dolls are available please like my Facebook Page.

Follow my blog in order to keep up to date with all my crafting goings on. 

Custom Dolly - Maggie the Flower Girl

After doing two gothic dolls, Betty Lou and Nancy, and a Christmas Doll, Sweet Angie, it was soooooo lovely to make a girly doll - pink and flowers and all. This little lady is adapted from lovely Sarah's pattern from Dolls and Daydreams. Using cotton, felt, ribbon and hand embroidered details. I love Maggie with her blonde pigtails and pink floral outfit, even her tutu has little sequins on.



I knew that this little dolly had to be pink with blonde hair and little pink cheeks, just like the little girl she was made for. What made Maggie different from the gothic dolls I have previously posted, apart from the little pink cheeks, is that her hair also had matching ribbon weaved through.

[caption id="attachment_169" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Little pink cheeks and ribbon in her hair[/caption]

 

Custom Dolly - Sweet Angie

EIGHT more sleeps! It's funny how once you have a child you start to count the sleeps until an event. This event, of course, is Christmas! It never used to be a favourite time of the year. In fact, only five or so years ago I would have quite happily held my hands up and said I was the female version of Scrooge. Since meeting my husband Christmas is special again. My lack of posts has not been due to a lack of making, quite the opposite - I haven't stopped! However, these are Christmas presents and therefore have to remain secret until the big day - I wouldn't want to give away the surprises I have made.

Sweet Angie, the Christmas tree angel
On the top of the tippy, tippy top of the tree
~ Andrews Sisters

Sweet Angie the Christmas Tree Angel - snug in her cape

I can show you Sweet Angie though. After completing all the Christmas surprises I decided to make me something - something I rarely do. Our Christmas tree was erected on December 5 - earlier than normal. Since my gothic doll, Nancy, I've been obsessed with making dolls and softies using Sarah's 'Dolls and Daydreams' patterns. Sarah had been 'sharing' photos of dollies made by other crafters on her facebook page. The little red riding hood doll was appearing to be a very good pattern to adapt into a Christmas doll.

Whilst I was finishing up a couple of dolls/softies my husband had sent me a file of Christmas music - well a file of files which were labeled with different genres etc. There was one called '40s' and in there was the Andrews Sisters - Christmas Tree Angel. I fell madly in love. The song and the photos on Sarah's page inspired me to make my own Sweet Angie.

She's about 2/3 of the original size with a reversible cape.

[caption id="attachment_132" align="aligncenter" width="589"] Sweet Angie in her Faux Fur Clock[/caption]

FABRICS:
Ivory Matt Satin
Ivory Shimmer Organza with Butterfly Motif

Faux Fur - Short Hair Curly Red
Beige Polycotton
Brown Felt

I used a plain beige polycotton (doubled) for the head, arms, and legs, and felt for the hair. For her body/dress I used a matt satin layered with the organza, and finished off with the reversible cape using both the matt satin and the curly faux fur. Finally she was stuffed using hypo-allergenic poly-stuffing.

[caption id="attachment_133" align="aligncenter" width="575"] '...on the top of the tippy tippy top of the tree'[/caption]

Sarah's patterns are all lovely and there is a lot of flexability and room for customisation. With Sweet Angie I embroidered her face and name. The font heavily inspired by the Crazy Girlz font. Angie will now be part of our family Christmas tradition - pulled out once a year to sit on the top of the Christmas tree and to protect the gifts below.

MESSAGE - POSTS AFTER MIDNIGHT

Another night staring at the bright screen at a time I can only assume is somewhere in the AM - the little clock that usually resides in the bottom right of my screen has decided it isn't paid enough to tell me the time anymore. Ahha! the draft auto-save feature has just informed me that it is 12:45am - I hope my little clock comes back from its holiday soon.

I was a night owl for many years and an insomniac for most of those too. Since having Vincent I have slept much better but every now and again I still end up getting out of bed and watching one of the 'Crime' channels or the Craft Channel 'til three or four in the morning. Not overly brilliant since the alarm goes off at 7:45am. Just to add insult to insomniac injury I appear to have the lurgy, and so does Vincent - Stephen has yet to be infected.

Since I've been offline for quite some time I should let you know what Binky Roo has been up to. A master of creating a million and one things to do and never having the ability to create more than 24 hours in a day that I need to do them all. Some of you know I also write and illustrate children's books. On the cusp of approaching an agent I got side tracked into crafting, not that I have minded but recently I have decided to revisit The Spooky Adventures of Lily Hope and will start illustrating for 'Lily and the Shadow Spider' again in a few weeks. I intend to keep going with both the crafting and the writing/illustrating as I love both.

As Binky Roo Designs I have also complete two CD-Roms for Cupcake Crafting and I'm still expanding their download section. To top that off I've also completed several keepsake gifts and started a new venture.

I've dived into the world of custom dolly making - I have a friend called Bev, weird and wonderful is how I'd describe her. She understand and appreciates the importance of felt zombies, rock concerts, and craft. Some time ago she sent me a link to a website that was having a mad give away - that months give away was a dolly pattern by Dolls and Daydreams. I had a little look before going back to my daily chores. I returned a day or two later and entered to win a vampire sewing pattern ready for Halloween (my favourite holiday of the year). Back on the Dolls and Daydreams website I found myself oohing and ahhing - I could have bought the whole shop of patterns. The dollies and softies are just wonderful and Sarah, the designer of the patterns, has not only designed cute dollies and softies but gothic (friendly gothic) dollies and softies too. I eyed up her Wednesday dolly. I NEEDED HER! However, I had to restrain myself. Let's not get carried away. I am the queen of my own little fads. I become obsessive - in  a non-scary way, but can quickly build up a high star rating on Ebay. So I restrain my purchase of Wednesday but revisit the website regularly, waiting for the day I treat myself.

The day came. I felt like death. A 24 hour virus had hit me. I had been fine one minute, the next I felt like I had been thumped in the stomach and at the same time my eyes felt like they had been staring at a static filled screen for 48 hours. Dizziness took over coupled with nausea - Oh no, I'm not pregnant again!? Negative, thank goodness (we have one and for now he is enough, he is our world). By the time the evening fell upon our house I was feeling so terribly sorry for myself that my finger accidentally hit the purchase button for Wednesday. Several weeks later I own a hand full of Sarah's wonderful patterns and several prototype dollies lie around the house.

[caption id="attachment_109" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Nancy the Gothic Ballerina[/caption]

Nancy was my first real success (minus the fabric used for her skin - not thick enough). Adapted from Sarah's ballerina doll, I made my own Gothic ballerina complete with spider and web embroidery. I had so much fun making her the thought of creating a line of Gothic dollies and softies, as well as cute ones of course, really appealed to me - watch this space! The next project post will be Betty Lou, a custom dolly made for Nikki and her daughter.

In conclusion to what I've been up to since the nasty hackers took over the Binky Roo website, I've opened another door for Binky Roo and its fans, custom orders of fabric dollies, softies, and felties.

Charity is another passion of mine. I support several, one of my favourites being Wild Futures / The Monkey Sanctuary in Looe. In the new year I intend to make a monkey softie and place it on auction to raise money and awareness for Wild Future so do look out for more information about that.

So there you have it. Almost all caught up and back up and running as normal.

Thank you for being so patient

Rachael Gracie

- it's now 1:30am. You may still get the post on Betty Lou yet!